Two Letters
by wrekt
Summary: When Hagrid came to the shack in the middle of the sea, he was carrying two letters, not one.Harry wasn't the only one who would be going to Hogwarts.
1. Prologue

Author's Note: Almost the entirety of this chapter, which is very short compared to what the rest will be, is taken completely from chapter four of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's (Philosopher if you're from Britain) Stone because the divergence from canon occurs at the very end of this chapter. After this, the story will begin to develop in a completely different direction as he first change will cause other changes which will compound to create even more changes, thus creating a completely different timeline.

Disclaimer: The story of Harry Potter and all characters therein belongs to J.K. (Jo) Rowling. I am not going to profit from this in this in the slightest and am only writing for my own personal entertainment.

The entire chapter, save the last line is taken directly from chapter four of the first book

* * *

BOOM. They knocked again. Dudley jerked awake.

"Where's the cannon?" he said stupidly.

There was a crash behind the and Uncle Vernon came skidding into the room. He was holding a rifle in his hands - now they knew what had been in the long, thin package he had brought with them.

"Who's there?" he shouted. "I warn you - I'm armed!"

There was a pause. Then -

SMASH!

The door was hit with such force that it swung clean off it's hinges and with a deafening crash landed flat on the floor.

A giant of a man was standing in the doorway. His face was almost completely hidden by a long, shaggy mane of hair and a wild, tangled beard, but you could make out his eyes, glinting like black beetles under all the hair.

The giant squeezed his way into the hut, stooping so that his head just brushed the ceiling. He bent down, picked up the door, and fitted it easily back into its frame. The noise of the storm outside dropped a little. He turned to look at them all.

"Couldn't make us a cup o' tea, could yeh? It's not been an easy journey..."

He strode over the sofa where Dudley sat frozen with fear.

"Budge up, yeh great lump" said the stranger.

Dudley squeaked and ran to hide behind his mother, who was crouching, terrified, behind Uncle Vernon.

"An' here's Harry!" said the giant.

Harry looked up in to the fierce, wild, shadowy face and saw that the beetle eyes were crinkled in a smile.

"Las' time I saw you, you was only a baby," said the giant. "Yeh look a lot like yer dad, but yeh've got yer mum's eyes."

Uncle Vernon made a funny rasping noise.

"I demand that you leave at once, sir!" he said. "You are breaking and entering!"

"Ah shut up Dursley, yeh great prune," said the giant; he reached over the back of the sofa, jerked the gun out of Uncle Vernon's hands, bent it into a knot as easily as if it had been made of rubber, and threw it into a corner of the room.

Uncle Vernon made another funny noise, like a mouse being trodden on.

"Anyway - Harry" said the giant, turning his back on the Dursleys, "a very happy birthday to yeh. Got summat fer yeh here - I mighta sat on it at some point, but it'll taste all right."

From an inside pocket of his black overcoat he pulled a slightly squashed box. Harry opened with trembling fingers. Inside was a large, sticky chocolate cake with Happy Birthday Harry written on it in green icing.

Harry looked up at the giant. He meant to say thank you, but the words got lost on the way to his mouth, and what he said instead was, "Who are you?"

The giant chuckled.

"True, I haven't introduced meself. Rubeus Hagrid, Keeper of Keys and Grounds at Hogwarts."

He held out an enormous hand and shook Harry's whole arm.

"What about that tea then, eh?" he said, rubbing his hands together.

"I'd not say no ter summat stronger if yeh've got it, mind."

His eyes fell on the empty grate with the shriveled chip bags in it and he snorted. He bent down over the fireplace; they couldn't see what he was doing but when he drew back a second later, there was a roaring fire there. It filled the whole damp hut with flickering light and Harry felt the warmth wash over him as though he'd sunk into a hot bath.

The giant sat back down on the sofa, which sagged under his weight, and

began taking all sorts of things out of the pockets of his coat: a copper kettle, a squashy package of sausages, a poker, a teapot, several chipped mugs, and a bottle of some amber liquid that he took a swig from before starting to make tea. Soon the hut was full of the sound and smell of sizzling sausage. Nobody said a thing while the giant was

working, but as he slid the first six fat, juicy, slightly burnt sausages from the poker, Dudley fidgeted a little. Uncle Vernon said sharply, "Don't touch anything he gives you, Dudley."

The giant chuckled darkly.

"Yet great puddin' of a son don' need fattenin' anymore, Dursley, don'

worry."

He passed the sausages to Harry, who was so hungry he had never tasted anything so wonderful, but he still couldn't take his eyes off the giant. Finally, as nobody seemed about to explain anything, he said,

"I'm sorry, but I still don't really know who you are."

The giant took a gulp of tea and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.

"Call me Hagrid," he said, "everyone does. An' like I told yeh, I'm Keeper of Keys at Hogwarts - yeh'll know all about Hogwarts, o' course."

"Er - no," said Harry.

Hagrid looked shocked.

"Sorry," Harry said quickly.

"Sorry?" barked Hagrid, turning to stare at the Dursleys, who shrank back into the shadows. "It' s them as should be sorry! I knew yeh weren't gettin' yer letters but I never thought yeh wouldn't even know abou' Hogwarts, fer cryin' out loud! Did yeh never wonder where yet parents learned it all?"

"All what?" asked Harry.

"ALL WHAT?" Hagrid thundered. "Now wait jus' one second!" He had leapt to his feet. In his anger he seemed to fill the whole hut.

The Dursleys were cowering against the wall.

"Do you mean ter tell me," he growled at the Dursleys, "that this boy - this boy! - knows nothin' abou' - about ANYTHING?"

Harry thought this was going a bit far. He had been to school, after all, and his marks weren't bad.

"I know some things," he said. "I can, you know, do math and stuff." But Hagrid simply waved his hand and said, "About our world, I mean. Your world. My world. Yer parents' world."

"What world?"

Hagrid looked as if he was about to explode. "DURSLEY!" he boomed.

Uncle Vernon, who had gone very pale, whispered something that sounded like "Mimblewimble." Hagrid stared wildly at Harry.

"But yeh must know about yet mom and dad," he said. "I mean, they're famous. You're famous."

"What? My - my mom and dad weren't famous, were they?"

"Yeh don' know... yeh don' know..." Hagrid ran his fingers through his hair, fixing Harry with a bewildered stare.

"Yeh don' know what yeh are?" he said finally.

Uncle Vernon suddenly found his voice.

"Stop!" he commanded. "Stop right there, sit! I forbid you to tell the boy anything!"

A braver man than Vernon Dursley would have quailed under the furious look Hagrid now gave him; when Hagrid spoke, his every syllable trembled with rage.

"You never told him? Never told him what was in the letter Dumbledore left fer him? I was there! I saw Dumbledore leave it, Dursley! An' you've kept it from him all these years?"

"Kept what from me?" said Harry eagerly.

"STOP! I FORBID YOU!" yelled Uncle Vernon in panic.

Aunt Petunia gave a gasp of horror.

"Ah, go boil yet heads, both of yeh," said Hagrid. "Harry - yet a wizard."

There was silence inside the hut. Only the sea and the whistling wind could be heard.

"- a what?" gasped Harry.

"A wizard, o' course," said Hagrid, sitting back down on the sofa, which groaned and sank even lower, "an' a thumpin' good'un, I'd say, once yeh've been trained up a bit. With a mum an' dad like yours, what else would yeh be? An' I reckon it's abou' time yeh read yer letter."

He held out two yellowish envelopes, one for Harry and one for Dudley.


	2. Chapter 1: Diagon Alley

**Disclaimer**: I do not own Harry Potter or any characters therein. I am simply using them to have some fun.

**Author's Note**: A lot of what I've put in the story to this point is word for word from the first book because I'm trying to emulate the butterfly effect. One minor change causes other minor changes. By the end of the prologue, only one sentence had changed. By the end of this chapter, a few paragraphs have changed. In the next chapter, whole scenes will have changed. By the end of the fourth chapter, the only similarities will be plot (somewhat) and setting. Word for word quotes (and some that have one or two words changed) are in italics.

I suppose this is a Pre-script... is that still P.S...

Anyways, thanks for the reviews.

* * *

When incredibly angry, Vernon Dursley turned a very rare shade of puce that was proof of blood rushing into his head incredibly quickly. This was the color he'd turned when Harry had set a snake loose on the zoo and trapped Dudley in its cage and it was also the color he turned when Hagrid, a 'giant freak', told him that his son was a wizard.

"You mean to tell me that my son, my flesh and blood, is a freak! Out! OUT!" Uncle Vernon shouted while Dudley hid behind Aunt Petunia, a feat that was rather difficult to achieve for he was like a whale and she like a giraffe.

"He will not go!" Uncle Vernon shouted, referring to Dudley though extending it to include Harry as well.

"_I'd like ter see a great Muggle like you stop him." Hagrid said._

_"A what?" said Harry, interested. _

_"A Muggle," said Hagrid, "it's what we call nonmagic folk like thern. _

_An' it's your bad luck you grew up in a family o' the biggest Muggles I _

_ever laid eyes on." _

"The boy's freakishness is contagious." Uncle Vernon muttered before shouting,_ "I AM NOT PAYING FOR SOME CRACKPOT OLD FOOL TO TEACH HIM MAGIC TRICKS!"_

_But he had finally gone too far. Hagrid seized his umbrella and whirled it over his head, "NEVER," he thundered, "- INSULT- ALBUS- DUMBLEDORE- IN- FRONT- OF- ME!"_

After his outburst, he knocked down the door which he'd earlier replaced and shouted over the storm, "Well, are yeh comin' or aren' yeh?" While Harry immediately followed the giant out the rickety old hut, Dudley needed more convincing. Only when he was told that if he didn't come he would have all him memories of his parents wiped and would be taken regardless of his wishes did he finally agree to come.

* * *

"This is it," said Hagrid, coming to a halt, "the Leaky Cauldron. It's a famous place."

Hagrid, Harry, and Dudley stopped in front of a tiny, grobby-looking place that, if it hadn't been pointed out to him, Harry wouldn't have noticed. No one on Charing Cross Road even gave it a second glance. In fact, their eyes looked it over as if it didn't exist.

Hagrid steered the two boys into the grimy building. When they entered, the low buzz of chatter seemed to stop.

_The old, bald bartender reached for a glass and asked, "The usual, Hagrid?"_

_"Can't, Tom, I'm on Hogwarts business," said Hagrid, clapping his great hand on Harry's shoulder and making Harry's knees buckle. _

_"Good Lord," said the bartender, peering at Harry, "is this - can this be -?" _

The building, which had been buzzing with noise, went completely silent, almost as if the residents were predators which had sensed nearby prey and were thinking of the best plan of attack.

_"Bless my soul," whispered the old bartender, "Harry Potter... what an honor." _

_He hurried out from behind the bar, rushed toward Harry and seized his hand, tears in his eyes. _

_"Welcome back, Mr. Potter, welcome back." _

_Harry didn't know what to say. Everyone was looking at him. The old woman with the pipe was puffing on it without realizing it had gone out. _

_Hagrid was beaming. _

_Then there was a great scraping of chairs and the next moment, Harry found himself shaking hands with everyone in the Leaky Cauldron. _

_"Doris Crockford, Mr. Potter, can't believe I'm meeting you at last." _

_"So proud, Mr. Potter, I'm just so proud."_

_"Always wanted to shake your hand - I'm all of a flutter." _

_"Delighted, Mr. Potter, just can't tell you, Diggle's the name, Dedalus Diggle."_

_"I've seen you before!" said Harry, as Dedalus Diggle's top hat fell off in his excitement. "You bowed to me once in a shop." _

_"He remembers!" cried Dedalus Diggle, looking around at everyone. "Did you hear that? He remembers me!" Harry shook hands again and again - Doris Crockford kept coming back for more._

While shaking hands with every person in the building, some twice, Harry missed the jealous face adorned by one Dudley Dursley, who was finally coming to grips with the fact that in the wizarding world, his cousin was more loved than he was.

_A pale young man made his way forward, very nervously. One of his eyes was twitching. _

_"Professor Quirrell!" said Hagrid. "Harry, Professor Quirrell will be one of your teachers at Hogwarts." _

_"P-P-Potter," stammered Professor Quirrell, grasping Harry's hand, "c-can't t-tell you how p- pleased I am to meet you." _

_"What sort of magic do you teach, Professor Quirrell?" _

_"D-Defense Against the D-D-Dark Arts," muttered Professor Quirrell, as though he'd rather not think about it. "N-not that you n-need it, eh, P-P-Potter?" He laughed nervously. "You'll be g-getting all your equipment, I suppose? I've g-got to p-pick up a new b-book on vampires, m-myself." He looked terrified at the very thought. _

_But the others wouldn't let Professor Quirrell keep Harry to himself. It took almost ten minutes to get away from them all. At last, Hagrid managed to make himself heard over the babble. _

_"Must get on - lots ter buy. Come on, Harry, Dudley."_

* * *

After entering a slightly crooked, snow white building with large, bronze doors and short goblins stationed with spears on both sides of the door, Hagrid led Dudley and Harry to a free goblin.

_"Morning," said Hagrid. "We've come ter take some money outta Mr. Harry Potter's safe and Dudley Dursley's Hogwarts fund." _

_"You have their keys, Sir?" _

_"Got them here somewhere," said Hagrid, and he started emptying his pockets onto the counter, scattering a handful of moldy dog biscuits over the goblin's book of numbers. The goblin wrinkled his nose. Harry watched the goblin on their right weighing a pile of rubies as big as glowing coals. _

_"Got it," said Hagrid at last, holding up a tiny golden key and another silver one. _

_The goblin looked at it closely. _

_"That seems to be in order."_

_"An' I've also got a letter here from Professor Dumbledore," said Hagrid importantly, throwing out his chest. "It's about the You-Know-What in vault seven hundred and thirteen." _

_The goblin read the letter carefully. _

_"Very well," he said, handing it back to Hagrid, "I will have someone take you down to the vaults. Griphook!" _

_Griphook was yet another goblin. Once Hagrid had crammed all the dog biscuits back inside his pockets, he and Harry followed Griphook toward one of the doors leading off the hall. _

"_Tell me about the You-Know-What in vault seven hundred and thirteen!" Dudley shouted rudely, though Harry was thinking thre same thing. _

_"Can't tell yeh that," said Hagrid mysteriously. "Very secret. Hogwarts business. Dumbledore's trusted me. More'n my job's worth ter tell yeh that."_

_Griphook held the door open for them. Harry, who had expected more marble, was surprised. They were in a narrow stone passageway lit with flaming torches. It sloped steeply downward and there were little railway tracks on the floor. Griphook whistled and a small cart came hurtling up the tracks toward them. They climbed in - Hagrid with some difficulty - and were off. _

_At first they just hurtled through a maze of twisting passages. Harry tried to remember, left, right, right, left, middle fork, right, left, but it was impossible. The rattling cart seemed to know its own way, because Griphook wasn't steering. _

_Harry's eyes stung as the cold air rushed past them, but he kept them wide open. Once, he thought he saw a burst of fire at the end of a passage and twisted around to see if it was a dragon, but too late - - they plunged even deeper, passing an underground lake where huge stalactites and stalagmites grew from the ceiling and floor. _

_I never know," Harry called to Hagrid over the noise of the cart, "what's the difference between a stalagmite and a stalactite?"_

_Dudley simply stared stupidly at the structures, a bit nauseous from the speed of the cart._

_"Stalagmite's got an 'm' in it," said Hagrid. "An' don' ask me questions just now, I think I'm gonna be sick."_

_He did look very green, and when the cart stopped at last beside a small door in the passage wall, Hagrid got out and had to lean against the wall to stop his knees from trembling. _

_Griphook unlocked the door. A lot of green smoke came billowing out, and as it cleared, Harry gasped. Inside were mounds of gold coins. Columns of silver. Heaps of little bronze Knuts. _

_"All yours," smiled Hagrid. _

Dudley, who'd finally had enough of being marginalized for the day, screamed, "It's not fair! He's just a freak, a wimp! Why does he get all the good things! Everyone loves him and he's rich! My parents deserve this money!"

Griphook, who'd been standing off to the side patiently waiting for Harry to get what he needed sniggered a little.

"What's so funny!" dudley shouted, the very image of a petulant child.

"Mr. Potter has another two vaults, each as big as this on, adding to a total of about seventeen thousand galleons in his names or three million pounds sterling." the goblin informed Dudley.

"Two other vaults? What for?" Harry asked curiously.

"The five thousand galleon reward for defeating You-Know-Who was put in one of the vaults and the other was started on your second birthday. On your birthday for five years, every of age wizard in Britain sent one galleon to you as appreciation for your defeat of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named." the short goblin informed Harry.

After placing seventy Galleons, seventy Sickles, and seventy Knuts into a shrinking money bag, Harry left the vault and the group was led to Dudley's scholarship vault, which had only 500 hundred galleons for seven years in it.

After Dudley had thrown a fit over his lack of wealth, the trio were taken by cart to vault 713.

_Hagrid turned to Griphook. "Vault seven hundred and thirteen now, please, and can we go more slowly?" _

_"One speed only," said Griphook. _

_They were going even deeper now and gathering speed. The air became colder and colder as they hurtled round tight corners. They went rattling over an underground ravine, and Harry leaned over the side to try to see what was down at the dark bottom, but Hagrid groaned and pulled him back by the scruff of his neck. _

_Vault seven hundred and thirteen had no keyhole. _

_"Stand back," said Griphook importantly. He stroked the door gently with one of his long fingers and it simply melted away. _

_"If anyone but a Gringotts goblin tried that, they'd be sucked through the door and trapped in there," said Griphook. _

_"How often do you check to see if anyone's inside?" Harry asked. _

_"About once every ten years," said Griphook with a rather nasty grin. _

_Something really extraordinary had to be inside this top security vault, Harry was sure, and he leaned forward eagerly, expecting to see fabulous jewels at the very least - but at first he thought it was empty. Then he noticed a grubby little package wrapped up in brown paper lying on the floor. Hagrid picked it up and tucked it deep inside his coat. Harry longed to know what it was, but knew better than to ask. _

_"Come on, back in this infernal cart, and don't talk to me on the way back, it's best if I keep me mouth shut," said Hagrid. One wild cart ride later they stood blinking in the sunlight outside Gringotts. Harry didn't know where to run first now that he had a bag full of money. He didn't have to know how many Galleons there were to a pound to know that he was holding more money than he'd had in his whole life._

* * *

"Hogwarts, dears?" Madam Malkin, a squat witch dressed in muave said, when Harry and Dudley entered the store. "Got the lot here - another young man being fitted up just now, in fact. " In the back of the shop, a boy with a pale, pointed face was standing on a footstool while a second witch pinned up his long black robes. Madam Malkin stood Harry on a stool next to him) slipped a long robe over his head, and began to pin it to the right length.

"Hello," said the boy, "Hogwarts, too?"

"Yes," said both Harry and Dudley.

"My father's next door buying my books and mother's up the street looking at wands," said the boy. He had a bored, drawling voice. "Then I'm going to drag them off to took at racing brooms. I don't see why first years can't have their own. I think I'll bully father into getting me one and I'll smuggle it in somehow."

"My parents are going to me the best broom there is." Dudley bragged, though he didn't even know how to ride a broom. The two blondes on either side of Harry were remarkably similar.

After that, Dudley was led to another room where he would be fitted with larger clothing because none of the normal first year clothing fit onto him.

_"Have you got your own broom?" the boy asked Harry. _

_"No," said Harry. _

_"Play Quidditch at all?" _

_"No," Harry said again, wondering what on earth Quidditch could be._

"_I'm the best quidditch player in my area of the country." Dudley boasted proudly, with no idea what he was doing except that since the other boy was bragging, then so too should he._

_"Father says it's a crime if I'm not picked to play for my house, and I must say, I agree. Know what house you'll be in yet?" _

_"No," said Harry, feeling more stupid by the minute. _

_"Well, no one really knows until they get there, do they, but I know I'll be in Slytherin, all our family have been - imagine being in Hufflepuff, I think I'd leave, wouldn't you?" "Mmm," said Harry, wishing he could say something a bit more interesting._

_"I say, look at that man!" said the boy suddenly, nodding toward the front window. Hagrid was standing there, grinning at Harry and pointing at two large ice creams to show he couldn't come in. _

_"That's Hagrid," said Harry, pleased to know something the boy didn't. _

_"He works at Hogwarts." _

_"Oh," said the boy, "I've heard of him. He's a sort of servant, isn't he?" _

_"He's the gamekeeper," said Harry. He was liking the boy less and less every second. _

_"Yes, exactly. I heard he's a sort of savage - lives in a hut on the school grounds and every now and then he gets drunk, tries to do magic, and ends up setting fire to his bed." _

_"I think he's brilliant," said Harry coldly. _

_"Do you?" said the boy, with a slight sneer. "Why is he with you? Where are your parents?" _

_"They're dead," said Harry shortly. He didn't feel much like going into the matter with this boy. _

_"Oh, sorry," said the other,. not sounding sorry at all. "But they were our kind, weren't they?" _

_"They were a witch and wizard, if that's what you mean." _

_"I really don't think they should let the other sort in, do you? They're just not the same, they've never been brought up to know our ways. Some of them have never even heard of Hogwarts until they get the letter, imagine. I think they should keep it in the old wizarding families. _

_What's your surname, anyway?" _

_But before Harry could answer, Madam Malkin said, "That's you done, my dear," and Harry, not sorry for an excuse to stop talking to the boy, hopped down from the footstool. _

_"Well, I'll see you at Hogwarts, I suppose," said the drawling boy._

* * *

In Flourish and Blotts, Harry was able to convince Hagrid that it would be in his best interest to buy more books than were on the required list so he could acquaint himself with the magical world, lest he be lumped together with Dudley.

After that, Harry and Dudley were taken to Eyelops Owl Emporium where Hagrid bought Harry a snowy white owl and Dudley a Blakintson's Fish Owl. The first as a birthday present and the second as a way to shut Dudley up after a tantrum about how Harry was getting everything handed to him.

_"Don' mention it," said Hagrid gruffly. "Don' expect you've had a lotta presents from them Dursleys." he shot Dudley an acidic glare, "Just Ollivanders left now - only place fer wands, Ollivanders, and yeh gotta have the best wand." _

_A magic wand... this was what Harry had been really looking forward to. The last shop was narrow and shabby. Peeling gold letters over the door read Ollivanders: Makers of Fine Wands since 382 B.C. A single wand lay on a faded purple cushion in the dusty window. _

_A tinkling bell rang somewhere in the depths of the shop as they stepped inside. It was a tiny place, empty except for a single, spindly chair that Hagrid sat on to wait. Harry felt strangely as though he had entered a very strict library; he swallowed a lot of new questions that had just occurred to him and looked instead at the thousands of narrow boxes piled neatly right up to the ceiling. For some reason, the back of his neck prickled. The very dust and silence in here seemed to tingle with some secret magic. _

_"Good afternoon," said a soft voice. Harry jumped. Hagrid must have jumped, too, because there was a loud crunching noise and he got quickly off the spindly chair. _

_An old man was standing before them, his wide, pale eyes shining like moons through the gloom of the shop. _

_"Hello," said Harry awkwardly. _

_"Ah yes," said the man. "Yes, yes. I thought I'd be seeing you soon. Harry Potter." It wasn't a question. "You have your mother's eyes. It seems only yesterday she was in here herself, buying her first wand. Ten and a quarter inches long, swishy, made of willow. Nice wand for charm work." _

_Mr. Ollivander moved closer to Harry. Harry wished he would blink. Those silvery eyes were a bit creepy. _

_"Your father, on the other hand, favored a mahogany wand. Eleven inches. Pliable. A little more power and excellent for transfiguration. Well, I say your father favored it - it's really the wand that chooses the wizard, of course." _

_Mr. Ollivander had come so close that he and Harry were almost nose to nose. Harry could see himself reflected in those misty eyes. _

_"And that's where..." _

_Mr. Ollivander touched the lightning scar on Harry's forehead with a long, white finger. _

_"I'm sorry to say I sold the wand that did it," he said softly. _

_"Thirteen-and-a-half inches. Yew. Powerful wand, very powerful, and in the wrong hands... well, if I'd known what that wand was going out into the world to do..." _

_He shook his head and then, to Harry's relief, spotted Hagrid. _

_"Rubeus! Rubeus Hagrid! How nice to see you again... Oak, sixteen inches, rather bendy, wasn't it?" _

_"It was, sir, yes," said Hagrid._

_"Good wand, that one. But I suppose they snapped it in half when you got expelled?" said Mr. Ollivander, suddenly stern. _

_"Er - yes, they did, yes," said Hagrid, shuffling his feet. "I've still got the pieces, though," he added brightly. _

_"But you don't use them?" said Mr. Ollivander sharply. _

_"Oh, no, sir," said Hagrid quickly. Harry noticed he gripped his pink umbrella very tightly as he spoke._

"_And who are you?" the wandmaker asked Dudley._

"_Dudley Dursley." Dudley responded haughtily._

_"Hmmm," said Mr. Ollivander, giving Hagrid a piercing look. "Well, now - Mr. Dusley. Let me see." He pulled a long tape measure with silver markings out of his pocket. "Which is your wand arm?" _

_"Er - well, I'm right-handed," said Dudley._

_"Hold out your arm. That's it." He measured Dudley from shoulder to finger, then wrist to elbow, shoulder to floor, knee to armpit and round his head. As he measured, he said, "Every Ollivander wand has a core of a powerful magical substance, Mr. Dursley. We use unicorn hairs, phoenix tail feathers, and the heartstrings of dragons. No two Ollivander wands are the same, just as no two unicorns, dragons, or phoenixes are quite the same. And of course, you will never get such good results with another wizard's wand." _

_Harry suddenly realized that the tape measure, which was measuring between his nostrils, was doing this on its own. Mr. Ollivander was flitting around the shelves, taking down boxes. _

_"That will do," he said, and the tape measure crumpled into a heap on the floor. "Right then, Mr. Dursley. Try this one. Beechwood and dragon heartstring. Nine inches. Nice and flexible. just take it and give it a wave." _

_Dudley took the wand and (feeling foolish) waved it around a bit, but Mr. Ollivander snatched it out of his hand almost at once. _

_"Maple and phoenix feather. Seven inches. Quite whippy. Try -" _

_Dudley tried - but he had hardly raised the wand when it, too, was snatched back by Mr. Ollivander. _

_"No, no -here, ebony and unicorn hair, eight and a half inches, springy. Go on, go on, try it out." _

_Dudley tried. And tried. He had no idea what Mr. Ollivander was waiting for. The pile of tried wands was mounting higher and higher on the spindly chair, but the more wands Mr. Ollivander pulled from the shelves, the happier he seemed to become. _

_"Tricky customer, eh? Not to worry, we'll find the perfect match here somewhere - I wonder, now - - yes, why not - unusual combination - holly and phoenix feather, eleven inches, nice and supple." _

_Dudley took the wand. A sudden warmth came from his direction in the room. He raised the wand above his head, brought it swishing down through the dusty air and a stream of red and gold sparks shot from the end like a firework._


	3. Chapter 2: Sorting

**Disclaimer**: I didnt own Harry Potter or any affiliated works when I wrote the last chapter. Shockingly, I still don't. *sarcasm*

**Author's note**: For clarification, Dudley was the one getting his wand at the end of the last chapter. He got the phoenix feather wand, not Harry. Also, I realize that so far most of the story has been the same as the first book, but I'm trying to write this realistically, which mean I am starting with fairly minor changes. The story is going to diverge completely around chapter 5.

_Italics are taken from Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone._

* * *

On September 1st, 1991, Harry Potter ran straight at a brick wall, but didn't crash into it; he went straight through it. Two minutes later, at 10:02, Dudley Dursley, a fat blonde muggleborn boy, barged through the barrier to platform Nine and Three Quarters. At 10:03, Vernon and Pertunia Dursley crashed into the platform face first. Muggles could not enter platform nine and three quarters unless they were touching a wizard or witch.

Inside the platform, steam collected around a scarlet and black train with the numbers 5972 printed in white under a large scarlet and gold plaque which read 'Hogwarts Express'.

Although the platform was mainly empty, some wizards and witches were scampering around, escorting their children and tearfully wishing them farewell. The children were ignoring their parent's sadness and focusing on the future - freedom from their parents and an entire castle to explore!

"Wow!" Harry exclaimed breathlessly as his cousin rushed out the platform to find his parents and bring them back in. Harry, with much effort on his own part, dragged his luggage onto the train and to the last compartment of the train where, with a great huff, he collapsed, tired from the effort.

"Potter, out of my compartment." Dudley commanded when he entered the compartment five minutes later. With a sigh, Harry, used to being pushed around by this point, heaved his luggage to the third to last compartment in which a boy with blonde hair who looked about Harry's age was reading "Hogwarts: A History".

"Hello," Harry began, "May I sit in this compartment?" Harry was sure he could've sat in another compartment, but he did want to make a friend or two before Dudley began scaring them away by bullying them.

The boy looked up from his book, "Of course. I'm Zacharias Smith, just call me Zach. who are you?" he asked with a kind smile on his face.

"Harry Potter. Great book you're reading." Harry responded. Over the last month, Harry had read all ten of the extra books he got from Flourish and Blotts so that he could seem more knowledgeable about the wizarding world than Dudley. Hogwarts: A History, which Zach was holding in his lap, had been one of those.

"Are you really?" Zach blurted out.

"Yes, why?" Harry asked.

Zach's face went red with embarrassment, "I hope you'll forgive my rudeness, it's just that I grew up going to sleep with bed time tales about you!"

Harry's eyebrows rose a bit as he questioningly stated, "Bed time tales?"

"You mean you don't know about them? Books like Harry Potter and the Voracious Vampire or Harry Potter and the Voluptuous Veela?" Terry asked, pretending to be shocked.

Having put his trunk atop the shelf for it, Harry took a seat directly across from Terry, next to the window which overlooked the platform. The express would be leaving in ten minutes and Harry could see a pack of red heads just arriving on the platform.

"No, mate, I was raised by muggles. I haven't a clue about any of that." Harry responded, a bit annoyed that there were books about him that he hadn't read. Besides, what did 'voluptuous' mean anyways?

"Oh.. Well, could I see your scar?" Zach asked.

Harry grinned shyly and pulled up his bangs to reveal a light lightning bolt mark. He might not like the fact that he was famous, but he could understand wanting to see the scar.

"_So that's where You-Know-Who..." Zach began._

"_Yes," said Harry, "but I can't remember it."_

"_Nothing?" Zach asked eagerly._

_"Well - I remember a lot of green light, but nothing else." _

_"Wow," said Zach. He sat and stared at Harry for a few moments, then, as though he had suddenly realized what he was doing, he looked quickly out of the window again._

For the next three hours, the two talked about various topics: Quidditch, Hogwarts, Pets, and more.

_"Are all your family wizards?" asked Harry, who found Zach just as interesting as Zach found him. _

_"Er - Yes, I think so," said Zach._

"_So you must know loads of magic already."_

"Not really. We're not allowed to learn until we turn eleven." Zach informed Harry.

The train billowed and began chugging before leaving the station.

"Though," Zach began with a sly grin, "I do know one spell that my mum taught me."

"Well, have at it." Harry told him a bit impatiently.

"Well, my mum was annoyed that I kept outgrowing my clothes every two months or so, so she taught me the clothing adjustment charm." Zach told Harry before pointing his wand at him.

Harry reached for his own ten inch Mahogany wand with an Egyptian Sand Dragon heartstring on reflex. All summer, he'd been threatening the Dursleys with it when they were unreasonable, so it was a reflex.

As he was about to start his spell, the door swung open and a brunette with a mane of untamable hair and large front teeth stepped into the compartment.

_"Has anyone seen a toad? Neville's lost one," she said. She had a bossy _

_sort of voice, lots of bushy brown hair, and rather large front teeth. _

_"No, we haven't," said Zach, but the girl wasn't listening, she was looking at the wand in his hand. _

_"Oh, are you doing magic? Let's see it, then." _

_She sat down. Zach looked taken aback. _

_"Er - all right." _

_He cleared his throat. _

_"Pannus Reparo."_

Harry's jeans, which had been far to large for him and slightly ripped fitted themselves to him and were sewn together by the spell while his shirt shrank to fit him correctly.

_"Great spell!" said the girl, causing Zach to puff out his chest, "I've tried a few simple spells just for practice and it's all worked for me. Nobody in my family's magic at all, it was ever such a surprise when I got my letter, but I was ever so pleased, of course, I mean, it's the very best school of witchcraft there is, I've heard - I've learned all our course books by heart, of course, I just hope it will be enough - I'm Hermione Granger, by the way, who are you. "_

_She said all this very fast. _

_Harry looked at Zach, and was relieved to see by his stunned face that he hadn't learned all the course books by heart either. _

_"I'm Zacharias Smith," Zach muttered. _

_"Harry Potter," said Harry. _

_"Are you really?" said Hermione. "I know all about you, of course - I got a few extra books. for background reading, and you're in Modern Magical History and The Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts and Great Wizarding Events of the Twentieth Century. _

_"Am I?" said Harry, feeling dazed. _He had bought books on Wizarding History, but had decided to learn the ancient history first for the sake of chronological order. He had yet to learn about any magical history past 1600 AD.

_"Goodness, didn't you know, I'd have found out everything I could if it was me," said Hermione. "Do either of you know what house you'll be in? I've been asking around, and I hope I'm in Gryffindor, it sounds by far the best; I hear Dumbledore himself was in it, but I suppose Ravenclaw wouldn't be too bad... Anyway, we'd better go and look for Neville's toad. You two had better change, you know, I expect we'll be there soon." _

_And she left, taking the toadless boy with her._

_"Whatever house I'm in, I hope she's not in it," said Zach._

Harry frowned at his new friends rudeness, Hermione was no doubt just nervous, but decided that she was annoying despite her good intentions.

"What house do you want to be in?" Harry asked.

"Ravenclaw. I don't want to be a Slytherin or Gryffindor, they're always at each other's throats. Hufflepuff wouldn't be to bad either." Zacharias answered before taking a black cat out of a cage in which he'd been keeping it.

"This is my pet, Naut." Zach told Harry, holding out the yellow-eyed cat for Harry to hold. As Harry was taking the cat, the blonde ponce from Diagon Alley opened the door to the compartment, with one ugly brutes on each side of him, but was attacked by the cat. The trio quickly left the compartment while Zach apologized profusely.

"That was Draco Malfoy. I don't particularly like him, but his father's powerful. Doesn't matter, he'll be a slytherin anyways." Zach explained.

The hatred with which Zach said 'Slytherin' made Harry curious, so he asked, "Why do you hate Slytherins so much?"

"Most dark wizards are Slytherins." Zach explained.

After that, the two heeded Hermione's advice and changed into their robes. No point in being late on the first day after all.

_The door swung open at once. A tall, black-haired witch in emerald-green robes stood there. She had a very stern face and Harry's first thought was that this was not someone to cross. _

_"The firs' years, Professor McGonagall," said Hagrid. _

_"Thank you, Hagrid. I will take them from here." _

_She pulled the door wide. The entrance hall was so big you could have fit the whole of the Dursleys' house in it. The stone walls were lit with flaming torches like the ones at Gringotts, the ceiling was too high to make out, and a magnificent marble staircase facing them led to the upper floors. _

_They followed Professor McGonagall across the flagged stone floor. Harry could hear the drone of hundreds of voices from a doorway to the right -the rest of the school must already be here - but Professor McGonagall showed the first years into a small, empty chamber off the hall. They crowded in, standing rather closer together than they would usually have done, peering about nervously. _

_"Welcome to Hogwarts," said Professor McGonagall. "The start-of-term banquet will begin shortly, but before you take your seats in the Great Hall, you will be sorted into your houses. The Sorting is a very important ceremony because, while you are here, your house will besomething like your family within Hogwarts. You will have classes with the rest of your house, sleep in your house dormitory, and spend free time in your house common room." _

_"The four houses are called Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin. Each house has its own noble history and each has produced outstanding witches and wizards. While you are at Hogwarts, your triumphs will earn your house points, while any rule breaking will lose house points. At the end of the year, the house with the most points is awarded the house cup, a great honor. I hope each of you will be a credit to whichever house becomes yours."_

_"The Sorting Ceremony will take place in a few minutes in front of the rest of the school. I suggest you all smarten yourselves up as much as you can while you are waiting." _

_Her eyes lingered for a moment on Neville's cloak, which was fastened under his left ear, and on a red head, Weasley's, smudged nose. Harry nervously tried to flatten his hair. _

_"I shall return when we are ready for you," said Professor McGonagall. _

_"Please wait quietly." _

_She left the chamber. Harry swallowed. _

_"How exactly do they sort us into houses?" he asked Zach. _

_"Some sort of test, I think. My dad said it hurts a lot, but I think he was joking." _

_Harry's heart gave a horrible jolt. A test? In front of the whole school? But he didn't know any magic yet - what on earth would he have to do? He hadn't expected something like this the moment they arrived. _

_He looked around anxiously and saw that everyone else looked terrified, too. No one was talking much except Hermione Granger, who was whispering very fast about all the spells she'd learned and wondering which one she'd need. Harry tried hard not to listen to her. He'd never been more nervous, never, not even when he'd had to take a school report home to the Dursleys saying that he'd somehow turned his teacher's wig blue. He kept his eyes fixed on the door. Any second now, Professor McGonagall would come back and lead him to his doom._

_Feeling oddly as though his legs had turned to lead, Harry got into line behind a boy with sandy hair, with Zach behind him, and they walked out of the chamber, back across the hall, and through a pair of double doors into the Great Hall. _

_Harry had never even imagined such a strange and splendid place. It was lit by thousands and thousands of candles that were floating in midair over four long tables, where the rest of the students were sitting. _

_These tables were laid with glittering golden plates and goblets. At the top of the hall was another long table where the teachers were sitting. Professor McGonagall led the first years up here, so that they came to a halt in a line facing the other students, with the teachers behind them. _

_The hundreds of faces staring at them looked like pale lanterns in the flickering candlelight. Dotted here and there among the students, the ghosts shone misty silver. Mainly to avoid all the staring eyes, Harry looked upward and saw a velvety black ceiling dotted with stars. He heard Hermione whisper, "Its bewitched to look like the sky outside. I read about it in Hogwarts, A History."_

_Harry quickly looked down again as Professor McGonagall silently placed a four-legged stool in front of the first years. On top of the stool she put a pointed wizard's hat. This hat was patched and frayed and extremely dirty. Aunt Petunia wouldn't have let it in the house. _

_Maybe they had to try and get a rabbit out of it, Harry thought wildly, that seemed the sort of thing - noticing that everyone in the hall was now staring at the hat, he stared at it, too. For a few seconds, there was complete silence. Then the hat twitched. A rip near the brim opened wide like a mouth - and the hat began to sing: _

_"Oh, you may not think I'm pretty, _

_But don't judge on what you see, _

_I'll eat myself if you can find _

_A smarter hat than me. _

_You can keep your bowlers black, _

_Your top hats sleek and tall, _

_For I'm the Hogwarts Sorting Hat _

_And I can cap them all. _

_There's nothing hidden in your head _

_The Sorting Hat can't see, _

_So try me on and I will tell you _

_Where you ought to be. _

_You might belong in Gryffindor, _

_Where dwell the brave at heart, _

_Their daring, nerve, and chivalry Set Gryffindors apart;_

_You might belong in Hufflepuff, _

_Where they are just and loyal, _

_Those patient Hufflepuffis are true And unafraid of toil; _

_Or yet in wise old Ravenclaw, _

_if you've a ready mind, _

_Where those of wit and learning, _

_Will always find their kind; _

_Or perhaps in Slytherin _

_You'll make your real friends, _

_Those cunning folk use any means _

_To achieve their ends. _

_So put me on! Don't be afraid! _

_And don't get in a flap! _

_You're in safe hands (though I have none) _

_For I'm a Thinking Cap!" _

_The whole hall burst into applause as the hat finished its song. It bowed to each of the four tables and then became quite still again. _

_"So we've just got to try on the hat!" Zach whispered to Harry. "I'll kill Dad, he was going on about wrestling a troll." _

_Harry smiled weakly. Yes, trying on the hat was a lot better than having to do a spell, but he did wish they could have tried it on without everyone watching. The hat seemed to be asking rather a lot; Harry didn't feel brave or quick-witted or any of it at the moment. If only the hat had mentioned a house for people who felt a bit queasy, that would have been the one for him._

_Professor McGonagall now stepped forward holding a long roll of parchment. _

_"When I call your name, you will put on the hat and sit on the stool to be sorted," she said. "Abbott, Hannah!" _

_A pink-faced girl with blonde pigtails stumbled out of line, put on the hat, which fell right down over her eyes, and sat down. A moments pause - _

_"HUFFLEPUFF!" shouted the hat. _

_The table on the right cheered and clapped as Hannah went to sit down at the Hufflepuff table. Harry saw the ghost of the Fat Friar waving merrily at her. _

_"Bones, Susan!" _

_"HUFFLEPUFF!" shouted the hat again, and Susan scuttled off to sit next to Hannah. _

_"Boot, Terry!" _

_"RAVENCLAW!" _

_The table second from the left clapped this time; several Ravenclaws stood up to shake hands with Terry as he joined them. _

_" Brocklehurst, Mandy" went to Ravenclaw too, but "Brown, Lavender" became the first new Gryffindor, and the table on the far left exploded with cheers; Harry could see Ron's twin brothers catcalling. _

_"Bulstrode, Millicent" then became a Slytherin. Perhaps it was Harry's imagination, after all he'd heard about Slytherin, but he thought they looked like an unpleasant lot. He was starting to feel definitely sick now. He remembered being picked for teams during gym at his old school. _

_He had always been last to be chosen, not because he was no good, but because no one wanted Dudley to think they liked him. _

Dudley was called up and after three minutes, the hat sorted him into "GRYFFINDOR!"

_"Finch-Fletchley, Justin!"_

_"HUFFLEPUFF!"_

_Sometimes, Harry noticed, the hat shouted out the house at once, but at others it took a little while to decide. "Finnigan, Seamus," the sandy-haired boy next to Harry in the line, sat on the stool for almost a whole minute before the hat declared him a Gryffindor. _

_"Granger, Hermione!" _

_Hermione almost ran to the stool and jammed the hat eagerly on her head. _

_"GRYFFINDOR!" shouted the hat. Ron groaned. _

_A horrible thought struck Harry, as horrible thoughts always do when you're very nervous. What if he wasn't chosen at all? What if he just sat there with the hat over his eyes for ages, until Professor McGonagall jerked it off his head and said there had obviously been a mistake and he'd better get back on the train? _

_When Neville Longbottom, the boy who kept losing his toad, was called, he fell over on his way to the stool. The hat took a long time to decide with Neville. When it finally shouted, "GRYFFINDOR," Neville ran off still wearing it, and had to jog back amid gales of laughter to give it to "MacDougal, Morag." _

_Malfoy swaggered forward when his name was called and got his wish at once: the hat had barely touched his head when it screamed, "SLYTHERIN!"_

_Malfoy went to join his friends Crabbe and Goyle, looking pleased with himself. _

_There weren't many people left now. "Moon" "Nott" "Parkinson" then a pair of twin girls, "Patil" and "Patil" then "Perks, Sally-Anne" and then, at last - "Potter, Harry!" _

_As Harry stepped forward, whispers suddenly broke out like little hissing fires all over the hall. _

_"Potter, did she say?" _

_The Harry Potter?" _

_The last thing Harry saw before the hat dropped over his eyes was the hall full of people craning to get a good look at him. Next second he was looking at the black inside of the hat. He waited._

_Hmm," said a small voice in his ear. "Difficult. Very difficult. Plenty of courage, I see. Not a bad mind either. There's talent, A my goodness, yes - and a nice thirst to prove yourself, now that's interesting... So where shall I put you?" _

_Harry gripped the edges of the stool and thought, Not with Malfoy or Dudley, not with Malfoy or Dudley. _

_"Not Slytherin or Gryffindor, eh?" said the small voice. "Are you sure? You could be great, you know, it's all here in your head, and Slytherin will help you on the way to greatness, no doubt about that - no? Well, if you're sure - better be RAVENCLAW!"_


End file.
